Communication Tips

Avoiding Communication Traps

If you've ever thought, "The people I dislike are the people that start talking and...

• never listen
• never stop
• don't know what they're talking about
• wander all over the place"

Then you've experienced an example of communication traps. There are four common traps.

Broken-down Railway is the trap of getting off the subject.

Rocky Mountain Trap is the trap of going up and down steep hills making your listeners exhausted as they work to understand your most important points.

Roller-coaster Trap is the trap of talking fast and furious. You hope that break-neck speed will make up for lack of meaningful ideas.

Lost in the Desert (or Whirlpool) is the trap many people in technical or analytical professions fall into. They put fact inside of fact inside of fact inside of fact, until you get lost in the whirlpool of ideas.

To avoid the communication traps, make sure your thoughts are organized before you speak by using logic and structure (see Follow the Rule of Threes).

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